Haunted
by Southern Trip
Summary: Post-Xindi- an accident in engineering leads to disasterous results for our favourite chief engineer. Why don't we all review one story every time we come on? It'll help everyone!
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: All characters (except Laura) belong to Paramount.   
  


A/N: I've abandoned "Secrets," didn't like where it was taking me. I'm going to start over with the same kind of idea, but slightly different. Let me know what you think!   
  


The thin young man sat on the edge of his bunk, hunched over himself, breathing shallowly through his nose. His light blue eyes were open wide, but unseeing in the darkness of the quarters. His hands, calloused and roughed up -a working man's hands- gripped his knees like talons seeking purchase in a wind storm. His handsome features were twisted in a grimace, one that would require a close range blast from a phase pistol to remove. He felt movement on the bunk behind him, but did not acknowledge it. Some days his nightmares woke her as well; others she slept through peacefully, the only evidence showing her his night of terror the state in which he found himself in the morning. This was obviously not one of those nights. 

"Trip?" The whispering voice was a welcome intrusion in the blackness. An overhead light was flicked on, bathing the room in soft yellow light. Two arms snaked out of the shadows behind him, and wrapped tightly around his middle. He leaned backward into the embrace, grateful for the contact. However horrible the nightmare had been, having her with him made everyone liveable. She kissed the back of his neck, felt the salty wetness there, and frowned. How long had he been suffering in the dark without waking her? She wondered. It was a futile gesture, she knew. He wouldn't tell her. Charles Tucker III was the best man she had ever known, able to talk to her for hours on any of a number of subjects, himself excluded from the list. Oh, sure, he explained his nightmares to her, in a very technical, engine manual-type way, but he never told her how all this made him feel. 

She closed her eyes, and asked, "was it a bad one?" 

She felt him nod, and was almost certain that he didn't trust himself to speak. She could feel his body trembling through their touch. He twisted around in her arms, hugging her tightly to himself, burying his face in the curve of her shoulder. When forced to endure a night like he just had, the only thing that could bring him back to himself faster than a trip out the nearest airlock was her contact. He was thankful for it, drank it up like a man dying from thirst. She didn't say anything, knowing words would not comfort him. Instead, she rubbed his back slowly, from his shoulder blades down to the band of his pajama pants, and back up several times. After an indeterminate amount of time, she could feel him beginning to respond. His shaking had subsided, breathing had slowed. Finally he pulled away from her, offering her a weak smile as he scooted back on the bunk and leaned against the wall. 

"Sorry,"he muttered, scrubbing at his face with his hands. "I didn't mean to wake you." 

She moved so she was sitting next to him, and said, "Trip, honey, you're supposed to. I'd gladly go without sleep to stop you from having to go through that." 

He didn't respond. He couldn't. Her honest words touched him so deeply he could feel tears pricking against the backs of his eyes. He reached out and grabbed her hand, holding it tightly, and hoping she got the message. She did. 

"I'm here for you." She touched his cheek gently, brushing a lock of hair off his forehead. This time he was unable to stop himself from responding to her kindness. He closed his eyes, but a tear escaped nonetheless, running down his face and dripping off the line of his jaw. 

"Hess to Commander Tucker." The comm spewed the unwelcome words into the air, and Trip was suddenly thankful they had spent the night in his room. He briskly wiped his face, knowing full well that his picture was not transmitted over the comm, and reached out to hold the button down. 

"Tucker here." His voice sounded weak to his own ears, but he knew he could pass it off as drowsiness. 

"I'm sorry to wake you, sir, but we're having some trouble with warp core readouts." 

Trip's thoughts about his own state were pushed out of his mind by the careful words of his second in command, Lieutenant Anna Hess. 

"I'll be right there." His acknowledgment was made without hesitation, and he sprung from his bunk even before the link had been cut. He hurried over to the bathroom attached to his quarters, grabbing a towel from the shelf and scrubbing at himself with it. His weakness was washed away by adrenaline, replacing thoughts of his dead sister with that of an exploding warp core if he didn't get down there fast enough. He dressed quickly, pulling on the uniform from the day before. 

Lieutenant Laura Simmons, MD, was in the same place he had left her. She frowned disapprovingly at him as he leaned over her, supporting himself with an arm on each side of her waist. "I'm sorry we don't get to have breakfast together." 

"Anna had better have a good reason for calling you down this early. If she doesn't, I'm gonna find a really good reason to confine her to decon for the next couple of days." 

Trip's sudden, bright grin was disarming, given his fragile state of several minutes before. In the time spent with Trip, Laura had become all too aware of the rapid emotional changes he could wing through. He had lost her around a sharp curve more than once. 

"It's nice having a girlfriend with the power to do that." He kissed her briefly, then straightened, and said over his shoulder on the way out, "I'll see you at dinner." 

Laura almost didn't hear his last words. Although she could feel the way Trip felt about her, he had yet to say anything to confirm it. Hearing herself in the context of girlfriend from his mouth brought a wide smile to her face. The man frequently amazed her. Before meeting him, she wouldn't have believed a man like him could be in existence. It didn't seem possible. But here he was. A man whose sense of loyalty to the Captain and the ship he served aboard overrode any thoughts of himself. Laura could spend every day for a million years with Trip, and it would never be enough.   
  


  
  


Commander Tucker straightened slowly, wincing as the kinks in his back worked themselves out. 'I'm too damn old for this.' The warp core emergency had been a false alarm. Most were. This time, two of the plasma relays had fused, causing a chain reaction all down the line. The sensors monitoring the warp core had overheated, and were giving off false readings. Trip sighed heavily. When given the choice between replacing plasma relays, a job a first year cadet could do, or having breakfast with the beautiful doctor, there was no contest. But it was too late to salvage the morning. Laura was no doubt already on duty in sickbay. Trip decided this was one of the time when keeping their relationship a secret served only to frustrate him. 

With a growl of annoyance, he lashed out with a booted foot, connecting with the removed plasma relay. It flew about ten feet, sliding to a stop in front of a pair of polished black boots. 

"Now, what did that relay ever do to you?"Captain Jonathan Archer asked, his left eyebrow raised in a questioning look. Trip pointed threateningly at the burnt out piece of equipment. 

"I told him nobody talks about my mama like that!" With a self-righteous smirk, he turned back to the panel he had been replacing, trusting that the Captain would explain the reason for his visit to engineering. He was not disappointed. 

"How are the repairs coming?"he asked, kneeling beside the Commander and lending a hand to the stubborn panel. Trip blew out a long sigh, then turned on his toes to look at the Captain. 

"Another couple of hours at least. Captain, it's the eight damn time this month that the plasma relays have fused. With your permission, I'd like to meet with T'Pol later, see if we can't come up with a solution." 

Archer nodded, standing slowly. "Fine with me. Just run the changes by me before you implement them." 

Trip nodded, as he replaced his spanner back into it's case. He stood, taking the container with him. 'Tell him,' he shouted to himself. 'Tell him you've found the girl for you. TELL HIM!!!' 

"Um, sir, the crew's pretty hyped about movie night. It was a good idea to re-introduce it." 

The Captain clapped his chief engineer on the back. "It was a good suggestion. I'll see ya later, Trip." 

Jonathan turned to leave, but the voice screaming in Trip's mind forced him to act. "Jon, wait!" 

The older man whirled around, eyes slightly wide in surprise. Trip rarely called him by his given name, and even less often while on duty. He felt anticipation bubbling in his stomach as his sub-conscious came up with several scenarios that left his good friend in trouble. 

"Um, can I talk to you in my office?" 

The office of the chief engineer was less an office, and more of a cubicle set up in the corner farthest from the warp core. The Captain didn't feel it necessary to remind him of that as he followed him through the department. 

Commander Tucker could feel his hands shaking slightly as he pulled out his desk chair and sat down hard. He knew in his heart of hearts Jonathan Archer would be happy to hear he had found someone. Captain Archer, however, was as unreadable to him as one of Hoshi's Klingon novels. He swallowed uneasily, realizing with a start that he hadn't said anything in several long minutes. He looked up at his Captain, his older friend, who was still taller than him, even when sitting. 

"Um, well, I don't really know where to start." 

Jonathan's face was suddenly filled with concern. "You aren't in trouble, are you?" 

Trip shook his head emphatically, feeling his face flush with colour. "No. No, it's nothing like that. Actually, quite the opposite." 

He looked down at his desk top, and started picking at a glob of sealant that had somehow found itself in his office. It would be so much easier to just come out with it. Wouldn't it? 

Jonathan watched his friend carefully, the nervous butterflies refusing to leave his stomach even after Trip assured him it was not bad. But the younger man had him puzzled. Although whatever he had to tell him was not bad news, Trip obviously didn't want to part with it. It couldn't be about his sister; in Archer's book, that still fell under the 'bad' category. Maybe it was another suggestion concerning the crew. But he almost seemed embarrassed. Like he had been caught doing something he shouldn't. Jon frowned slightly, shifting through possible solutions in his mind. The blatant answer suddenly hit him like a phaser cannon blast between his eyes. The smile that crossed his face almost cracked his face in half. 

"Trip,"he said, abruptly. The Commander looked up in surprise. 

"Who is she?" 

The response he was given wasn't what he expected, but confirmed his suspicions nonetheless. Trip's face turned an even deeper shade of red, colour rising all the way up to the tips of his ear. His jaw dropped slowly, and his mouth hung open for a long second before he came to his senses and shut it with a snap.   
  


"Um, I'd rather not tell. I don't want to jinx it. You understand?" 

If even possible, Jonathan's smile widened even farther. "Sure. Just promise me this fling won't get in the way of your duties." 

The redness faded from Trip's cheeks, and he looked quietly indignant. "No, Jon, you don't understand. It's not a fling. This girl...Well, she's incredible. I think...I think I love her." 

The Captain's eyebrows almost disappeared under his hairline. "Oh. I have to be honest, you surprise me. I didn't think you were ready to settle down yet." 

"Hey, wait a sec! Nobody's settling down. I don't see 2.4 kids and a white picket fence in my near future. Not now, anyway. Finding the Xindi's still the number one thing on my mind." 

"I didn't mean to imply that I thought anything less, Trip. You just surprised me, is all. I'm glad you've found someone. Just, please if this relationship gets in the way of the mission, change something." 

Trip held his friend's gaze for a long minute, then nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, okay, I promise. We're not even in the same department." 

He stood, indicating to the Captain that he needed to get back to work. "I really appreciate your take on this, Jon. Believe it or not, I was kind of nervous to tell you." 

Jonathan laughed, squeezing his friend tightly. "Well, that is quite a surprise. Certainly had me fooled." 

They exited his office together, each pondering how lucky they were to have a friend as good as the other. They parted ways at the lift, Captain Archer returning to the bridge, and Trip back to his to-do list.   
  


A/N: Please review if you like it, or not. If you don't like it, I won't bother publishing it. Too much work! =p   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. Subterfuge

  
  


Lieutenant Malcolm Reed left the bridge at exactly 1800 hours, heading straight off the lift to sickbay, his grumbling stomach propelling him to walk even faster. After the most uneventful shift on the bridge to date, he was looking forward to some kind of stimulation. He was literally one more sensor sweep away from shooting himself in the foot. 

When he entered sickbay and hurriedly looked around the room, he realized that Lieutenant Simmons seemed to have had a similar shift to his own. He spotted her at the far end of the room, hunched over the microscope with a frustrated scowl on her face. As he neared her, he was surprised to hear a string of dirty curses coming from such a pretty mouth. 

"You must be spending a lot of time with Mr. Tucker,"he said, standing behind her. 

She started, which showed Malcolm just how absorbed she had been. A look of deliberate innocence crossed her face, and she raised an eyebrow slowly. 

"Um, why do you think that?" 

Malcolm smiled. "I've never heard so many colourful metaphors come out of your mouth. The only person I know who curses the 'damn useless makers of plastic' is our Commander Tucker." 

Laura smiled brightly. "Yeah, I guess it's too hard to deny. The man does make up some good insults." She shut off the microscope, and turned to face her friend. "Something I can do for you?" 

Lieutenant Reed checked his chronometer again to make sure he wasn't too early. "Are you ready for dinner? Or should I go without you?" 

"Nope, I'm good to go. I was just trying to get this damn piece of machinery to work, but it's obviously beyond my skills." 

Malcolm smirked as they left sickbay. He wondered if it was as conclusive to her as it was to him. She had been spending enough time with Mr. Tucker to pick up on his speech patterns. Mousy and shy would've been the last words he would've used to describe her when they first meant nearly a year before. But back then, not every tenth word out of her mouth had been a curse. He also wondered whether or not her newly found close relationship with the Commander was as friends, or perhaps more. 

They met Hoshi and Travis in the mess hall, neither of whom had been assigned to the bridge that day. Malcolm helped himself to a plate of meatloaf and greens, while Laura opted for a helping of pasta and garlic bread. They took their seats with the navigation and language experts, while Laura noticed right away with a look of longing the empty fifth chair. 

"Is Commander Tucker not joining us?"she asked, even as the others were digging in. 

"He messaged me, said he was going to be late it he could make it at all,"Hoshi explained, without looking up as she stirred her soup carefully. Trip and Laura were both very careful about not leaving enough clues around for people to link them together. Neither wanted anyone to know about their relationship just yet, so it was kept on the down low. To the casual observer, it would almost seem as if they were avoiding each other. 

"So how was the bridge today, Malcolm?"Travis asked, speaking around a mouthful of meatloaf. 

Malcolm, forever the epitome of table manners, finished chewing before replying, "I was almost wishing the Klingons would make an appearance." 

Hoshi laughed softly. "That bad, huh? Guess I'm lucky to have been working with the Sub-Commander." 

Once information on the Xindi had started coming in somewhat regularly, the Captain had assigned Hoshi and Sub-Commander T'Pol to the task of analyzing the database twice a week, to make sure nothing was looked over. So far, Laura knew, they had not come with anything useful. 

Laura took a careful bite of pasta as she studied the people she had some to think of as friends. She had not known them before being assigned to Enterprise half way through their exploring mission. She didn't know the Lieutenant Reed Trip spoke of, the one who avoided all social contact and lived off work like it was a life staple. She had never met the Hoshi Sato who considered resigning from Starfleet for fear of the danger involved with space travel. These people she had only heard about from Trip, at the beginning of their relationship nearly eleven months earlier. 

She looked up from her dinner as the very same subject of her thoughts entered sickbay, an expression of unadulterated relief at having found his friends still there on his face. He grabbed a sandwich and a glass of iced tea on his way over. 

"Sorry I'm late, guys,"he explained as he sat down between Laura and Travis. "Engineering is suddenly the Disneyland of Enterprise." 

She smiled, and tried not to look to contented as she felt his booted foot touch her own. In the situation they found themselves in, Trip and Laura had become quite good at hidden public displays of affection. Touching feet under the tables, holding hands in empty corridors; she couldn't even think about what they had done in the lifts without feeling her face go red. 

"Malcolm was just saying that the bridge was quieter than a morgue,"Travis revealed, after taking a long drink of chilled milk. 

The words brought unbidden images to Trip's mind, the thought of no bodies left to bury, and he felt his face fall. He looked down at the sandwich he had picked, wondering why he had grabbed it. He no more felt like eating now, than he had first thing in the morning. 

Laura was the only one who noticed the look that crossed the Commander's face, almost pure melancholy as he stared down at his meal. She also noticed that he had picked egg salad, thinking that was odd. He didn't even like egg salad. 

"Is that right?"he said absently, as he peeled the bread off the filling and chewed it slowly. "Hell, I'd trade you if I could." 

If anyone thought it odd that Trip left a plate full of sandwich filling infront of him, they didn't say anything. Laura was worried by it though. She leaned back in her chair, and grabbed the hand that rested in his lap. Something was troubling him, she knew; he entwined his fingers in hers and held tight. Although he didn't look at her directly, she could see that grateful glint in his blue eyes. She made a mental note to talk to him about his nightmare when they were alone. 

Dinner was over quite quickly. Hoshi and Travis excused themselves promptly after eating, having volunteered to organize movie night for this go around. Malcolm also left, with the intent of showering before returning to the mess hall. Laura and Trip soon found themselves alone at the table, looking over at one another carefully. 

"Trip, we've got to talk,"Laura said in a low voice. She felt his hand stiffen on her thigh, and knew that he was dreading the conversation he knew she was referring to. "I can read you better than you think,"she said, with a small smile. He locked eyes with her, and smiled also. 

"Can you now,"he said, raising an eyebrow slightly. He made a point of looking at her carefully, her light brown pulled up in a ponytail, bright blue eyes twinkling mischeviously at him, the way she licked her pasta sauce-covered fork just so... He stood suddenly. "Meet you in my quarters?"Without waiting for a response, he hurried out of the mess hall. 

She didn't have to try hard to figure out what he had in mind. Trying to be discreet, Laura waited a full thirty seconds before bolting up and following the Commander down the corridors to the place she had come to think of as her second home. They had exchanged access codes several months earlier, so Laura simply entered his room once she was sure the coast was clear. 

All thoughts of conversation were pushed forcibly from her mind as she walked into the shadowed room. She made sure to lock the door behind her, and had barely done that before a uniformed figure flew out of the darkness and knocked her over onto the bunk. She laughed the whole way down, knowing that she was never quite as comfortable with anyone as she was with this man.   
  


Sometime later, Trip lay back on his bunk, with his arms full of a very satisfied doctor, blue eyes closed softly. She laid her head down on his bare chest, tracing imaginary patterns with the tip of her finger. 

"That tickles,"he whispered, grabbing her hand and kissing it tenderly. That simple act caused her heart to swell, and also brought another thought to her mind. Nightmares, her mind spoke to her. Get him to talk while he's relaxed. 

"Trip, honey, tell me about your nightmare." His hand froze where he had been massaging her shoulder, and she could feel his body tense considerably. It was apparent he was uncomfortable, but both knew he would have to talk about some time. He also seemed to know it would do him no good to avoid the subject. Laura could be like bull dog with a toy in her mouth once she got hold of an idea. 

"Well, it started out great. I was with you, in sickbay. Um, you know, having some fun on one of the biobeds." Despite the situation, Laura felt herself smile. It was a nice feeling to know she was in someone's dreams. Especially a person like Trip. 

His arms tightened around her as he resumed talking. "But then it changed, I was in Florida. We were sitting down to dinner. The doorbell rang, and Lizzie ran to get it. She always used to make me nervous; the way she would've let anybody into the house, didn't matter who they were." He grew silent, and Laura didn't prod. When he started again, his voice had taken on a shaky quality. "We heard this weird noise, and I ran over. Lizzie was standing facing the door, with a big hole in the stomach. God, I could see right through it, could see the bastard standing in the doorway. Then she turned around, and told me it was my fault, that I'd let it happen to her." Laura looked up at Trip's face, and wasn't surprised to see tears building in his eyes. He closed them hard. "Then she fell down, and the man who calls himself our father was there, holding the phase pistol that had killed her. He told me I didn't do my job, that I'd failed him, and so Lizzie had to die. Then he gave me the pistol, and I just started shooting everyone. I tried to stop myself, but it just didn't work. I was just standing over their bodies, looking down at the blood on my hands. I turned back to the doorway, but my dad was gone, and you were there instead. I raised the phase pistol, I had you in my sights..." He trailed off, not trusting himself to finish. A horrified look in her face, Laura hurriedly scooted up and took him in her arms. She hugged him close as he struggled to get a hold of his emotions, taking deep breaths through a tightly clenched jaw. 

"Listen to me, Trip,"she said sternly, kissing the top of his head. "What happened to your sister is not your fault. I hope you don't actually think that. Even if you had have been there, you'd have been killed too, and not in any position to make those responsible pay. Do you understand?" 

He nodded meekly, but Laura knew her words did nothing. Trip Tucker would blame himself for his sister's death until the day he died, and as saddening a thought as it was, no one could do anything to change his mind. Instead of wasting her breath trying, she hugged him tighter. 

It was sometime before the trembling subsided. They lay quietly until Trip felt he could trust his voice again. "I talked to the Captain today. About us." 

Laura sat up like a bolt of lightning. She looked at him quizzically, one eyebrow raised almost to her hairline. "What? I thought we weren't going to tell anyone." 

He shrugged. "I couldn't keep it any longer. I had to tell him. But he doesn't know it's you. He just knows there's a woman in my life, other than my sisters and mom." 

Laura's smile split her face from ear to ear. She had never been the 'woman in my life' to anyone before, and the thought of it made her want to laugh out loud with happiness. Instead of laughing, she grabbed his face in her hands, and kissed him fiercely. Trip Tucker was nothing if not a gentleman, and would never deny a woman anything she wanted. He acknowledged his sweetheart, kissing her with equal ferocity, his hands running up and down her sides. As they moved together on the bunk meant for one, each was thinking about how luck they were to have found the other. And either would have done anything to keep what they had. 


End file.
